What Is Your Dog Worth?

lostman

lostman

500+ Posts
The question you don't want to face as a pet owner. How far would you go in terms of money. I already have the quality of life question answered, but how much money are you willing to drop if your pet is injured or sick?

Our golden started coughing and throwing up food Saturday afternoon. Thinking she had something caught in her throat, we tried a few of the home remedies for that with no luck. Sunday she was panting quite a bit and still throwing up food about 20 min after eating, but she was hungry and still active. I did not feed her dinner Sunday night as she was acting less hungry.

Took her to the vets yesterday afternoon, did chest and abdomen x-rays. They then send me to Gulf Coast Vet Specialists, meaning this is more than we can treat. Ruh-roh.

Two x-rays, a visit with my vet, a visit with the vet at GCVS, and $620 later we learn that Abby has pneumonia and most likely also has megaesophagus. Take her home with meds and some canned food, try to get some food down her and some antibiotics, bring her back today to recheck and confirm the rest of the tests they did.

Back again today, she is now running a fever, breathing is louder, more labored, nose is running yellow now rather than clear. Megaesphogus diagnosis is confirmed, do we want to look for cause of it? Pneumonia is worse.

We now have to leave her at GCVS for a couple days to aggressively treat the pneumonia. They will then do a test for myesthenia gravis, a possible cause of megaesophagus. If the MG test is positive, we can treat it and possibly see some improvement in the megaesphagus. If it is negative, then we expect to have more bouts of pneumonia as this is often a complication that develops when they aspirate a piece of food or mucus from regurgitation.

Abby is 8 1/2 years old, when we get through the pneumonia it will have cost us close to $3,000.
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If she gets pneumonia again, it will be more of the same. We have some hard decisions ahead. I know today, at the vets, that I couldnot have made any other decision. We are not ready for Abby to go just yet. But I don't know if we can keep up with vet bills like that.

Thanks for reading this far. I feel better but still sad. How far would you go financially?
 
I get this question every time I drop my dog off at the Boarding place when we go out of town. My dog is 2.5 years old and a super super friend and part of the family. having said that, I do put a limit on the amount I'd be willing to spend should she become sick. I know it sounds mean, but my logic is that she's a pound mutt and there are lots of pound mutts that can supplant her should she pass.

I know I'll get beat over the head by those that wouldn't set limits on the costs, but as tight as our family budget is with kids, etc., I have to put a ceiling on the amount I'd pay to save her. I won't say how much it is, but its more than $1,000.
 
If you have a wife and kids, I'm SURE you have a LOT better uses for $3,000 than fixing up a sick dog. Put her down. Get a new dog from the pound. Use the money to take your family on a vacation (memories last a lifetime), college fund, etc.

If you're rich enough that $3,000 is a rounding error in your annual budget, go ahead and fix the dog. If you're single and the expenditure isn't going to affect anyone else but you, spend as you see fit.

Losing a pet is tough, but it happens to everyone at some point. Spending the money now does not make the problem disappear. It only delays the inevitable.

To me it all comes down to what other possible uses you have for the money.

Bernard
 
If you can get your dog well, she probably has about 4-5 years left in her. We just made the same decision (an easy one, really) for our 5 yr old Scotty, who has cancer. Already removed an ear with the tumor, and he is going through doggie-chemo to get rid of the cancer that spread to his lymph nodes. 8 treatments at 300$ a pop stings (plus $1000 for the surgery), but he's responding well, and we hope to have him another 8 years or so. My wife and I are broke as hell right now - but to us, it was a no brainer.
 
I wouldn't go past $500.

I grew up raising animals - dogs, cats, ponies, cattle, chickens and more. I loved all of them. Well, not the chickens. I bought calves for $25 and hoped to sell them later for $300. If it got sick I'd spend some money, usually for strong antibiotics, to get it well but not too much. If they're very sick it runs big bucks and sometime they die anyway. And it's a bunch of work. And sometime they get others sick.

Also I saw animals kill each other. There are animals which eat others to stay alive. It's what they do.

I dearly love animals but spending thousands of dollars on a dog is not my cup of tea. And it's not just the money. It's not how I think the animal kingdom should work. My animals live outdoors, even in subzero weather.
 
Just spent about $3,500 on my namesake as a result of "bloat" and pancreatitis. He's a member of our family and his prognosis was good so there was no doubt or hesitation.

Frankly, I'm not sure how much would be too much. I hope I don't ever have to find out.
 
Well the situation sort of resolved itself today. My husband went to see her at lunch today and they were trying to call us. Abby's conditioned worsened during the morning. When he got there she had the IV lines and oxygen tubes in her nose. After getting me out of class to talk to him, we made the decsion to put her down. So the expenses are not quite as much as we were expecting.

I wish we could have pulled her through the pneumonia and had a few more years, but that was not to be.
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Happy trails Abby!!! We will miss you!

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abby.jpg
 
My sister has 2 Goldens that look almost identical to Abby. Good dogs that just love to be around people. Sorry for your loss.
 
That's sad. I had to put my year old Border Collie down a while back and I still miss her. She had a very ugly disease. By an unusual stroke we caught it very early but ...
 
I dropped $3K on hip surgery of my chocolate lab right after graduating from college. It seriously put me in the hole. He was run over by a truck and needed a triple pelvic osteotomy as well as a pin put in his hip. He was 10 months old at the time of the accident, and well on his way to being a helluva bird dog. I probably wouldn't have spent the money if I didn't
have so much invested in him already.

I rolled the dice and paid the vet bill via credit card. The vet said he would never run again, but within a year, he was back to full speed. He's seven now, and doesn't miss a day of dove/quail/duck season, though this year he has begun to show his age some.

Probably not my wisest decision, but it turned out OK. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone for the cheapest route possible and just kept him as a house dog. He's a huge part of our family now, and we hope to have him around for several more years.
 
Priceless...unless in pain or have significantly compromised quality of life. I don't have kids though. II'm with you in spirit--had to put "my best friend" down in Nov. and still cry a couple times a week. I have other dogs that I love--but there was something really special in the connection Jake and I had.
 
We spent a lot on our dog-he had a spinal stenosis, and we paid for the dog orthopedic surgeon to repair this-he lived seemingly pain-free for nine or ten more years afterwards.
Then the last year of his life was costly, with various ailments, until we finally decided to have him put to sleep. The quality of his life wasn't great anymore, and he was 16, old for an Airedale Terrier.
It's a personal decision, and if you can afford it, should be based on whether the animal will have a good chance at living a happy, healthy life following the treatment.
RIP Cactus.
 
Very beautiful dog. Sorry to hear this news. We have a beautiful golden girl who is now 1.5 years old. If I were you I would go adopt a new puppy right away.
 
I remember when my daughters then 4 and 8 accidentally broke the back leg of our Yorkie Puppy. Mom had raced the dog off to the vet and I calmly picked up the newspaper and began to look in the Dog section. The kids were trying to figure out what I was doing? I was trying to find the "break even point" on the cost of a replacement dog. I argued the them (for a lesson in responsibility) that they hadn't had a lot of time to bond with the dog, only a few weeks. They didn't seem overly concerned with the health of this particular dog in the way they cared for her. A new not broken puppy could be had the same as writing a check to fix the "broken" puppy.

I don't know how much I would spend, but in that case it was about $500. However the girls got the point regarding both cost and taking care of their dog.
 
for the record, the dog in my sig pic is a very expensive dog. to the tune of three rear-legs ACL surgeries (the third of which the vet did free of charge - just had to pay for the drugs to put her under), which puts her value, to me, at $4000 + regular check ups, dog food, etc.

but in reality, she is priceless. she and the oldest boy get along so perfectly, that everytime he runs to her and throws his arms around her neck with a big old grin, and she licks his face, and he laughs - well, can't put a price on that. she's extraordinarily maternal with both boys. she's truly irreplaceable, and i dread the day that i'll have to face what lostman had to face.
 
We had this discussion at work just the other day.
Somehow, I've made it thru 44 years and never had to be a part of a decision to put an animal down.
I grew up and moved away before my parent's animals died, and I lost my dog and cats in a divorce.
I've had my current dog now for 10 years, and I know that time will eventually come.
My two daughters love that dog to death, but not as much as I do.
I often wonder if I'll be man enough to handle it when that time comes.
 
My 12 year old Bernese/Aussie mix died two weeks ago. She had a seizure at 4 AM (first ever), and at 8 AM was following me, had another seizure, and fell down the stairs. Ever see a 110 pound dog fall down stairs? Horrible. My daughters saw it, too.

We put her to sleep 3 hours later.

On the other hand, 3 years ago my 5 year old dog developed an autoimmune disorder and spent we spent 5 months and about $10K in a cycle of medicine and treatment and decline and illlness that was, in retrospect, cruel. And I'd do it again, too, if I thought it would save him.

So clearly the earlier experience influenced my thinking recently. To me it's all about preserving the dignity and quality of life of the animal. When the day comes that there are going to be a lot more bad days than good to look forward to, no matter what you do, it's time to let go.
 
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